"Santana you're such a creep," Quinn took a sip of her coffee and rolled her eyes at her best friend. "Why don't you just go talk to her? I mean honestly."
Santana quickly looked away from the person that had been holding her interest and fixed her gaze on the girl across the table from her. "I have no idea what you're talking about Quinn, I was reading the menu…" she looked sheepishly down into her mug.
"Right… and I'm sure it has nothing to do with the cute blonde sitting at that table over there." Quinn pointed to a girl sitting near the wall mounted menu; she had headphones in and looked focused on whatever she was listening to.
Santana slapped Quinn's hand back down onto the tabletop, "Don't point at her, she'll see us!" She yelped. She took a breath and then lowered her voice, "And no, unlike you, I have better things to do with my time than check out random girls in Starbucks." Santana brought her coffee to her mouth and snuck another discreet look at the mysterious girl on the other side of the room, "But you're right, she is pretty cute."
"Go talk to her." Quinn giggled and took a bite of her pastry as Santana blushed.
"She's probably straight… or not interested in me." Santana looked down into her mug dejectedly, "Besides, it's not like I'd even know what to say."
Suddenly, Quinn grabbed Santana's hand and smirked. "Don't look now, but I think she's looking at you," Quinn squealed and gripped the girl's hand harder, "Oh my god, she's totally checking you out."
Santana ripped her hand out of Quinn's and turned to look just as the other girl looked away and turned her head to look at the clock on the wall. Not a very discreet cover-up for staring.
"I told you not to look." Quinn sighed and took another sip of her coffee.
"I don't believe anything that comes out of your mouth Fabray, I had to see for myself." Santana tried to suppress a grin. "I think she was looking at me."
"Whoa, someone's cocky… don't let it go to your head Lopez; I'm still hotter than yo-" Quinn stopped mid sentence and started up with a new train of thought. "Shit, she's coming over here."
"Quinn, shut the fuck up. I was kidding about her checking me out, she's totally not interested." Santana sighed, "Stop playing me."
Santana felt a tap on her shoulder and she slowly turned around to make eye contact with the bluest pair of eyes she'd ever seen. "H-hi, can I h-help you?" Santana was awestruck.
"Yeah, I just moved to New York and I'm kind of lost," The blonde girl fidgeted with her fingers and finally decided to rest them on Santana's shoulder. "Do you think you could point me in the direction of the nearest subway station?"
Santana smiled at the girl and put down her coffee, "Sure, I can do you one better than that. Where do you need to go?"
"Well, I'm starting at Julliard in a couple days and I need to get back to my dorm, I'm not sure what subway I took to get here." The girl smiled but there was a hint of nervousness in it.
"No problem, there's a stop a couple blocks from here that will take you directly back to campus." Santana stood up and started gathering her purse, "I can just take you if you want… its kind of hard to describe." Santana smiled at the girl and then stuck out her hand, "I'm Santana by the way."
The girl grabbed her hand and shook it gently, "I'm Brittany. You don't need to take me though, what about your friend?" She looked at Quinn, who had been silently observing the scene.
"I'm Quinn… and I have errands to run." She smiled and rushed to pick up her things, but briefly paused to wink at Santana before heading towards the door.
"… so yeah, that's how I ended up at NYU. Oh and here we are!" Santana stopped at the top of the steps and pointed down to the subway station below, "Just get on the 9 train and you'll end up right at the Lincoln Center." She smiled at Brittany and turned to go, "It was really nice meeting you!"
"Wouldn't it be better for me to take the 1 train from here?"
Santana turned back around and saw Brittany smiling mischievously at her. "Um… well I guess yeah it woul- Hey, I thought you were lost!" She was suddenly angry that this girl had wasted her time.
"Well, I am new here, that wasn't a lie. But I know which train to take back to school." Brittany stepped towards Santana and handed her a slip of paper. "Besides, I wanted an excuse to talk to you."
Santana stared dumbfounded at the slip of paper in her hand, she unfolded it to reveal a cell phone number scrawled in pink ink. The name Brittany S. Pierce was signed underneath. Santana couldn't believe a girl had just given her their number; it had to be a prank set up by one of her dumb friends, Kurt was probably behind this.
"Is this some kind of joke or something?" Santana shoved the slip of paper in the front pocket of her jeans angrily.
Brittany smiled so wide that the corners of her eyes crinkled, "Nope, but I saw you checking me out… I was checking you out too. You're cute, and you offered to walk me all the way here so you must be nice, any chance you want to give me your number? You know… just in case I want to make the first move?"
"Are you s-sure this isn't a joke?" Santana hesitantly pulled a pen out of her purse, "Mercedes or Kurt didn't put you up to this so that they could make fun of me?"
Brittany looked at her inquisitively, "Who are they?" This wasn't going how she had planned, maybe she'd read the girl's signals wrong… Maybe Santana wasn't interested after all.
Santana grabbed Brittany's wrist before she lost her courage and quickly wrote her number on the other girl's arm, electricity passing between her fingers and Brittany's wrist. "Cool, so I guess I'll see you later?" She tried to fight the smile that was battling to take over her face.
"I sure hope so." Brittany winked and then descended into the underground subway station, her body flooded with relief. From the second she had seen her in Starbucks, Brittany had wanted to get to know the girl. She really hoped Santana would call her.
Santana felt mesmerised as she watched the girl walk down the steps and descend into the darkness of the subway. Brittany moved like she was dancing to music nobody else could hear; Santana didn't think she had ever met anybody who had caught her interest so quickly… or at all really. She would definitely be calling her tonight.
Santana entered her apartment and placed her keys on the counter, she picked up the slip of paper Brittany had given her and started keying the number into her phone, she laughed at the "i" that was dotted with a heart and the bottom of the sheet. She could already tell that New York was the start of bigger and better things for her. She was going to school and studying something she loved, her best friend was her roommate, and just maybe, Santana thought, maybe she would get her first girlfriend.
God she loved New York.